1883 Haydock Douay Rheims Bible
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| Lamentations 3:1 | Aleph. I am the man that see my poverty by the rod of his indignation. | Man. Jeremias had a share in the common misery, (Worthington) and bewails his own condition, as a figure of Christ, Psalm 87:16., and Isaias 53:3. (Calmet) --- His disciples must expect to suffer. (Haydock) |
| Lamentations 3:2 | Aleph. He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, and not into light. | Led, or driven me with the rod. (Haydock) --- God employs two, Zacharias 11:7. That of rigour was reserved for this prophet; (chap. 38.) none of them suffered more. |
| Lamentations 3:3 | Aleph. Only against me he hath turned, and turned again his hand all the day. | |
| Lamentations 3:4 | Beth. My skin and my flesh he hath made old, he hath broken my bones. | Old and wrinkled, the effect of misery. |
| Lamentations 3:5 | Beth. He hath built round about me, and he hath compassed me with gall, and labour. | Gall. Septuagint, "head." Chaldean, "he hath seized the chief," Job 16:13. He speaks in the name of the besieged, who had been threatened with this punishment, ver. 19., and Lamentations 8:14. (Calmet) --- And labour. Nabuzardan ransacked the city worse than his master, (Worthington) if the latter was at all present. (Haydock) |
| Lamentations 3:6 | Beth. He hath set me in dark places, as those that are dead for ever. | Ever indeed, Ecclesiastes 12:5., and Psalm 48:12. Jeremias (Jeremias 38:6.) was in imminent danger. |
| Lamentations 3:7 | Ghimel. He hath built against me round about, that I may not get out: he hath made my fetters heavy. | |
| Lamentations 3:8 | Ghimel. Yea, and when I cry, and entreat, he hath shut out my prayer. | Prayer. God would not allow him to pray for the people, Lamentations 7:16. |
| Lamentations 3:9 | Ghimel. He hath shut up my ways with square stones, he hath turned my paths upside down. | Stones. There is no passage, Job 19:8. |
| Lamentations 3:10 | Daleth. He is become to me as a bear lying in wait: as a lion in secret places. | Places. This may refer to the prophet or to the people. |
| Lamentations 3:11 | Daleth. He hath turned aside my paths, and hath broken me in pieces, he hath made me desolate. | |
| Lamentations 3:12 | Daleth. He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for his arrows. | Arrows. Such places were common where shooting was practised, 1 Kings 20:36., and Job 16:11. |
| Lamentations 3:13 | He. He hath shot into my reins the daughters of his quiver. | |
| Lamentations 3:14 | He. I am made a derision to all my people, their song all the day long. | Song. True prophets were derided on account of impostors, and because their declarations were unpleasant, etc., Lamentations 17:15., and Ezechiel 12:22. |
| Lamentations 3:15 | He. He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath inebriated me with wormwood. | Wormwood, or a bitter poisonous herb, Lamentations 9:26., and Deuteronomy 29:18. |
| Lamentations 3:16 | Vau. And he hath broken my teeth one by one, he hath fed me with ashes. | One. Hebrew, "against a stone." My bread is full of them, Psalm 101:10. (Calmet) --- He describes his afflictions, as if his teeth had been broken. (Worthington) |
| Lamentations 3:17 | Vau. And my soul is removed far off from peace, I have forgotten good things. | |
| Lamentations 3:18 | Vau. And I said: My end, and my hope is perished from the Lord. | End. Hebrew, "strength." Septuagint, "victory." (Calmet) |
| Lamentations 3:19 | Zain. Remember my poverty, and transgression, the wormwood and the gall. | |
| Lamentations 3:20 | Zain. I will be mindful, and remember, and my soul shall languish within me. | |
| Lamentations 3:21 | Zain. These things I shall think over in my heart, therefore will I hope. | Hope. The remembrance fills him with grief and hope, Lamentations 20:12. (Haydock) |
| Lamentations 3:22 | Heth. The mercies of the Lord that we are not consumed: because his commiserations have not failed. | |
| Lamentations 3:23 | Heth. They are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness. | New. Novi should be novae, to agree with miserationes. (Calmet) --- Chaldean, "new miracles" occur daily. (Haydock) --- God's mercies are ever fresh. (Worthington) |
| Lamentations 3:24 | Heth. The Lord is my portion, said my soul: therefore will I wait for him. | |
| Lamentations 3:25 | Teth. The Lord is good to them that hope in him, to the soul that seeketh him. | |
| Lamentations 3:26 | Teth. It is good to wait with silence for the salvation of God. | |
| Lamentations 3:27 | Teth. It is good for a man, when he hath borne the yoke from his youth. | Yoke. Afflictions endured for justice sake ensure a blessing. (Haydock) --- All may derive great benefit from suffering. |
| Lamentations 3:28 | Jod. He shall sit solitary, and hold his peace: because he hath taken it up upon himself. | Himself, with perfect resignation. |
| Lamentations 3:29 | Jod. He shall put his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope. | Hope. He does not doubt, but confides with great humility. |
| Lamentations 3:30 | Jod. He shall give his cheek to him that striketh him, he shall be filled with reproaches. | Him. We cannot verify this of the prophet as we can of Christ, (Matthew 26:62.; Calmet) to whom this particularly refers. (Worthington) |
| Lamentations 3:31 | Caph. For the Lord will not cast off for ever. | |
| Lamentations 3:32 | Caph. For if he hath cast off, he will also have mercy, according to the multitude of his mercies. | |
| Lamentations 3:33 | Caph. For he hath not willingly afflicted, nor cast off the children of men. | Men. He punishes with regret, Ezechiel 18:23. Our crimes force him to chastise, ver. 36. (Calmet) --- Yet he seeks our advantage. (Worthington) |
| Lamentations 3:34 | Lamed. To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the land, | |
| Lamentations 3:35 | Lamed. To turn aside the judgment of a man before the face of the most High, | |
| Lamentations 3:36 | Lamed. To destroy a man wrongfully in his judgment, the Lord hath not approved. | |
| Lamentations 3:37 | *Mem. Who is he that hath commanded a thing to be done, when the Lord commandeth it not? Amos 3:6. | Commanded. Hebrew, "said: It cometh to pass," as if by chance. There have always been Epicureans, Ezechiel 8:12., and Psalm 93:7. (Calmet) --- Those who deny Providence speak, ver. 30. (Worthington) |
| Lamentations 3:38 | Mem. Shall not both evil and good proceed out of the mouth of the Highest? | |
| Lamentations 3:39 | Mem. Why hath a living man murmured, man suffering for his sins? | Sins? If all happened by inevitable necessity, or according to the laws of Providence, why should any one complain? |
| Lamentations 3:40 | Nun. Let us search our ways, and seek, and return to the Lord. | |
| Lamentations 3:41 | Nun. Let us lift up our hearts with our hands to the Lord in the heavens. | Up. This posture "is the testimony of a soul naturally Christian." (Tertullian, Apol.) --- Our heart must accompany our hands, 1 Timothy 2:8. (Calmet) |
| Lamentations 3:42 | Nun. We have done wickedly, and provoked thee to wrath: therefore thou art inexorable. | Inexorable. Hebrew and Septuagint, "Thou hast not shewn pity." (Haydock) |
| Lamentations 3:43 | Samech. Thou hast covered in thy wrath, and hast struck us: thou hast killed, and hast not spared. | Covered thyself, as if not to see our distress. |
| Lamentations 3:44 | Samech. Thou hast set a cloud before thee, that our prayer may not pass through. | Cloud. Isaias 59:2., and Ecclesiasticus 35:21. These expressions are admirable. |
| Lamentations 3:45 | Samech. Thou hast made me as an outcast, and refuse, in the midst of the people. | |
| Lamentations 3:46 | Phe. All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. | |
| Lamentations 3:47 | Phe. Prophecy is become to us a fear, and a snare, and destruction. | Prophecy. Many would read, vastatio. Hebrew, "ruin." Septuagint, "taking away." (Calmet) --- Protestants, "Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction." The prophets were continually in danger. (Haydock) --- The preaching of false prophets has brought these evils upon the people. (Worthington) |
| Lamentations 3:48 | Phe. My eye hath run down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people. | |
| Lamentations 3:49 | Ain. My eye is afflicted, and hath not been quiet, because there was no rest: | |
| Lamentations 3:50 | Ain. Till the Lord regarded, and looked down from the heavens. | |
| Lamentations 3:51 | Ain. My eye hath wasted my soul, because of all the daughters of my city. | Wasted. Literally, "robbed." (Haydock) --- I have felt more for my people than they have themselves. Moral writers often produce this text, to shew the dangers of an unguarded glance (Calmet) at women. |
| Lamentations 3:52 | Sade. My enemies have chased me, and caught me like a bird, without cause. | |
| Lamentations 3:53 | Sade. My life is fallen into the pit, and they have laid a stone over me. | Over me, as if I were buried. (Haydock) --- Jeremias was in prison (chap. 38:6.) when he prayed, ver. 54., and Lamentations 20:7. (Calmet) |
| Lamentations 3:54 | Sade. Waters have flowed over my head: I said: I am cut off. | |
| Lamentations 3:55 | Coph. I have called upon thy name, O Lord, from the lowest pit. | |
| Lamentations 3:56 | Coph. Thou hast heard my voice: turn not away thy ear from my sighs, and cries. | |
| Lamentations 3:57 | Coph. Thou drewest near in the day, when I called upon thee: thou saidst: Fear not. | |
| Lamentations 3:58 | Res. Thou hast judged, O Lord, the cause of my soul, thou the Redeemer of my life. | |
| Lamentations 3:59 | Res. Thou hast seen, O Lord, their iniquity against me, judge thou my judgment. | Judge what they have judged unjustly. (Worthington) |
| Lamentations 3:60 | Res. Thou hast seen all their fury, and all their thoughts against me. | |
| Lamentations 3:61 | Sin. Thou hast heard their reproach, O Lord, all their imaginations against me. | |
| Lamentations 3:62 | Sin. The lips of them that rise up against me: and their devices against me all the day. | Lips; or language (Genesis 11:1.) thou knowest, ver. 60. |
| Lamentations 3:63 | Sin. Behold, their sitting down, and their rising up, I am their song. | Up, all their conduct. --- Song. Ver. 14. |
| Lamentations 3:64 | Thau. Thou shalt render them a recompense, O Lord, according to the works of their hands. | |
| Lamentations 3:65 | Thau. Thou shalt give them a buckler of heart, thy labour. | Buckler, to cover all the body. They shall be surrounded with misery, (Psalm 108:29.) while God will protect his servants, Psalm 5:13. (Calmet) --- Let sorrow pierce their heart, as thy enemies are treated. (Worthington) |
| Lamentations 3:66 | Thau. Thou shalt persecute them in anger, and shalt destroy them from under the heavens, O Lord. |